We're a design company that helps clarify, communicate and inspire great relationships.

Clarify. We work with leadership teams, to understand and articulate their organisation’s purpose, objectives and value. Together, we get to the heart of what the team wants the business to achieve and agree the most effective way to communicate it.

“DB&Co’s message mapping has been instrumental in getting us to realise the essence of what we love doing through business and how best to communicate that. David has challenged us in a constructive and supportive way working on all aspects of our first web site and brand mark. Working through David and his team has been a rewarding investment in time and energy.”

Mark Loveday- Owner, AMM

“What makes us different? What perception do we want to create? Message Mapping provided a pragmatic and effective framework by which these questions were asked, answered, challenged and a consensus on the way forward agreed that can underpin our future communications strategy.”

“DB&Co worked with us to develop a brand identity for a new private equity backed buy and build business set up to provide software and data solutions to the global shipping market. The brief demanded something fresh, with a sense of momentum and a nod to the global nature of the company’s target markets and solutions.

The DB&Co team helped us firstly to articulate what it was that was going to make this new entrant special in the markets it served and then to bring that to life with a strong brand expression and clear brand story.

The DB&Co team has a refreshingly practical approach to brand that includes a strong focus on establishing clear points of difference that enable brands to stand out from the crowd and engage in a more meaningful and effective way with audiences.

This is the third time I have worked with this team, each time with vastly different aims and objectives and I would strongly recommend them.”

David’s ability to distil what he has heard in over 20 hours of workshops into a creative interpretation is unique and impressive – not something I have ever seen before in over 15 years of working with listed company reports.

Andy Williams - Deputy Chief Financial Officer, JKX Oil and Gas plc

“Getting 20 lawyers to agree on anything is never going to be easy, but David’s Message Mapping technique provided structure, insight, energy and enthusiasm which kept us focused on the job on hand; devising a cohesive brand strategy for a modern law firm. Thank you David for a challenging and rewarding day”

“David’s ability brings a clear, structured and evidenced based approach to message mapping, creating a powerful yet simple framework for us to use while listening to and accommodating all stake-holders has set an enduring standard for the quality we now expect from our partners. Our message mapping work has created tangible benefits for the organisation within a matter of weeks.”

100% of the team said it was enjoyable (25%) or very enjoyable (75%) – Phew!
“Such a great pleasure to meet you and what a great day we had. Entire team was amazed with your message mapping performance. We will now put this in practise on the events.”

Martin Sokolowski, Resource Services Director, Halian

“We invited Dave to a senior management offsite meeting with more than a little nervousness fearing that Message Mapping would be met with a folded arms and leave me out of the fluffy stuff attitude. In the event the day was a great success with all members participating energetically and we ended up with a remarkably unified outcome, helping not just our communications but our sense of direction. We are following up with further sessions.”

“A systematic approach, turning subjective ideas into qualified and evidenced actions. Starting with three disparate groups, each with their own ideas and prejudices, we successfully used the process to distil a common messaging approach. Subjective ideas were challenged and tested such that they became clearly evidenced facts. Everyone bought into the resultant plan – and we delivered on it.”

“Our work with David has provided us with a wonderful foundation on which to base our future communications. His style, approach and message mapping process has proven invaluable, giving us highly effective results.”

“Markets change and evolve, so stopping to ensure that your market proposition is refined and well tuned to any market and legislation changes and accurately aligned to the customer’s/client’s requirements is essential. David Birt’s Message Mapping process is one of the most effective ways of getting your team’s understanding of your organisation strategy aligned with how you communicate effectively to your target audience.”

“It is an easy and fun exercise that forces you to really consider your audience and their requirements in the context of your own agenda. Through its use we were able to produce a highly effective, targeted communication to our shareholders and employees.”

“Message Mapping brings an approach to communication which builds the brand by linking key buying criteria to relevant messages and communication tools. This in turn delivers real bottom line results. Many agencies are strong in parts of the communication cycle, but few have such a complete results oriented approach.”

‘Message Mapping quickly brought out the key issues in re-branding and enabled us to agree swiftly and with the minimum of fuss. The brand is simple but strong and lends itself to the many different uses needed. I would happily use this system again and recommend it to others.’

David Wells - Development Director , Scarborough Development Group plc

“I have known David for over 10 years and over that time he has produced some great work. He combines a really exceptional strategic insight coupled with an ability to think and visualise creatively. His ability to get on with people at all levels means he can get to the heart of an issue quickly and translate that into possible solutions that the client can work with. He is a first class operator.”

Debbie Standish - Change in action/, Tetley Group

“David is a great creative thinker matching comms strategy with creative output. He truly believes that great design won’t work unless the message is right and therefore spends time to ensure the brief and the Message Map are correct before the design is considered. In execution he has an incredible eye for detail. And he’s great fun to work with too.”

“David’s Message Mapping process was recommended and his workshop made some uncomfortable confrontations easier to put on the table and discuss. His humour and honesty was appreciated by all of us and he helped us work through various differences until we all agreed the way forward. Quite often, we all meant the same thing, but were just describing it in different ways”

The output was agreed communication and language that we can use to communicate to our customers what exactly we are offering and why they should use our company rather than our competitors. He helped us identify our point of difference and recognise our strengths and weaknesses and put plans in place to address these.

We were then able to use Davids team to develop this communication into a new website and printed collateral to help get our message across.”

Jo Morley - Marketing manager , Admiralty, UKHO

“We engage you because we like you (a lot!) and you are really great at getting customers to condense complex stories into clear often thought provoking manageable chunks of information. In their own words…

You are a first rate workshop leader.

Your messaging workshop process is superb – probably better than you realise. Particularly because it encourages consensus – something rarely found in large corporations – IMHO.

You and your process are a real differentiator”

Robbie Crittall CEO , Ivory Worldwide

“We have worked closely with DB&Co for over ten years, using Message Mapping as a powerful diagnostic tool.

We believe the workshop component is one of the most effective means for engaging a clients senior management team in helping to define differentiating propositions and brand strategy. It harnesses their unique insights around key audience issues and desired perceptions, which in turn drives key messages and identifies the beliefs and behaviours their organisation will need to support.”

Ian Robson, Managing Director, Robsondowry

“David helped a diverse group of individuals from a wide range of organisations to focus in on those areas where we could make the biggest impact and add the most value, then agree what our key priorities and supporting messages were under the Science City Bristol banner. The process was challenging but has given the partnership some renewed enthusiasm and clarity of a shared vision.”

“Whilst we commissioned DB&Co as a direct result of needing to address our market positioning and subsequent messaging, the real value derived was in linking this to our visual identity and the ways in which this should change in order to present a complete picture of the company.

The structure of all the initial message mapping workshops was critical in developing and delivering a sustainable market position based upon a framework of desired perceptions and different articulations of propositions to get our audiences aligned with these. Once developed, the framework then went on to serve as the foundation for everything that we did in Marketing from advertisements and e-marketing to our presence at exhibitions and corporate communications. It became a central reference point.

The difference lay in helping to achieve the buy-in of key stakeholders. Working with management who don’t have the understanding of marketing that you’d quite like, I was entirely comfortable and often encouraged getting DB&Co in front of internal stakeholders. They were able to challenge and prompt them in a way that was difficult for me to achieve – this led to better reasoning and acknowledgment that the proposed comms and creative direction was the right one for the company.”

Message Mapping is a powerful diagnostic tool that helps you agree and be clear about what makes your offer distinctive and engaging to your intended targets...

What makes us different? What perception do we want to create? Message Mapping provides a pragmatic and effective framework by which these questions can be asked, answered, challenged and a consensus on the way forward and agreed underpinning a future communications strategy.

David Hirst - Marketing Director, Capgemini Consulting UK

Clear on what makes you special?

It draws directly from your business objectives to ensure your team is aligned and shares the same view

Helped us agree key audiences and the messages that differentiate us from competitors. As a result, we have been able to move forward as a joined up team.

Jane Berry - Marketing Manager, Fujitsu Defence and Security

Colleagues aligned & contributing ?

It uses your team's insights and knowledge to help identify the issues that are central to the success of your targets' businesses, how your offer helps overcome those issues, and establishes the data for propositions that will ignite dialogue

I was entirely comfortable and often encouraged getting DB&Co in front of internal stakeholders. They were able to challenge and prompt them in a way that was difficult for us to achieve.

Kate Fletcher - Marketing Manager, Cognito

Clear on what your customers really want?

It’s fast (2 weeks)

Our message mapping work has created tangible benefits for the organisation within a matter of weeks.

Our work with David has provided us with a wonderful foundation on which to base our future communications. His style, approach and message mapping process has proven invaluable, giving us highly effective results.

A typical workshop programme

Involving a mix of at least five to a maximum of around 15 contributing individuals who work at a senior level, with responsibilities covering policy making, operational performance and marketing communication. The workshops can be undertaken as a single one day session or broken down into smaller components.

Senior team leader buy in/briefing essential

Who runs it?

Our strategic consultant, David Birt, facilitates the workshops. He has over 25 years’ experience leading diverse and challenging design and communications projects.

Key outcomes:

Identification of likely media required to communicate to each audience effectively

Identification of hierarchy of communications. For example, a suggestion of which message motivates what audience / most effective media, speed of delivery etc

15 second description of your organisation

This is presented as a report which pulls together the outcomes from the above workshops. It provides a clear and measurable communication brief, capable of connecting a brand to high priority audience groups in order to build interest, revenue, loyalty and advocacy.

Engaging communication

Once Message Mapping is complete we’re in a great position to prepare creative concepts with insight and in-depth understanding. (See examples)